Japan’s land values rose again in 2026, with many of the strongest increases concentrated in places foreign buyers already pay attention to: central Tokyo, major tourist destinations, and internationally known resort areas.
On July 1st, the National Tax Agency announced Japan’s 2026 roadside land values, or 路線価, based on values as of January 1st. The national average for around 310,000 standard residential land points rose 2.9% year on year, making this the fifth consecutive year of increases and the largest rise since the current calculation method began in 2010.
Roadside land values are a tax-assessed land value used mainly to calculate inheritance and gift taxes. It is separate from actual sale price, but it still gives a useful public benchmark for where land values are moving.
That old “Japan is cheap” image still applies in some places, but definitely not everywhere anymore. There are still plenty of affordable areas. But land in places with real demand, whether from residents, investors, tourists, or second-home buyers, is being pulled in a very different direction.
Tokyo shows that clearly. Standard residential land values there rose 9.4% from a year earlier, the strongest increase of any prefecture. With city-center office and condominium demand still firm, Tokyo is not really moving like the average Japanese market. A specific property can still be overpriced, and buyers may still be able to negotiate, but pricing pressure in prime areas is not something to ignore.
Tourism shows up in the numbers too. Osaka gained 5.1%, and Okinawa gained 6.6%. That fits the wider travel picture: according to the Japan National Tourism Organization, Japan welcomed roughly 42.6 million inbound visitors in 2025, marking a second straight record year. Not all of that becomes real estate demand directly, of course. But in places built around visitors, strong tourism can feed into business demand, redevelopment, investment, and buyer confidence.
The ski resort figures were on another level. In Nagano, Hakuba Village rose 32.7%, while Nozawa Onsen Village rose 31.3%. Furano City in Hokkaido rose 28.0%. These are not the kinds of numbers most people associate with ordinary rural property. A property outside a major city does not automatically become cheap just because it looks rural or resort-based. Areas with strong international name recognition can behave very differently from nearby locations that look almost the same on a map.
The strength was not limited to a handful of famous areas either. In prefectural capitals, 44 cities rose year on year, while Aomori, Tsu, and Tottori stayed flat. For the first time in 35 years, since the 1991 publication during the bubble period, none of the highest roadside land values in those cities fell.
Wajima tells a very different story. Asaichi-dori in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, an area damaged by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, dropped 8.6%. That was the sharpest decline nationwide for the second year in a row. One national figure can make the market look smoother than it really is, especially when a strong urban or resort area is being averaged together with a disaster-hit local street.
From a buyer’s perspective, location is doing more of the work than ever. Japan has not suddenly become expensive everywhere, but demand is increasingly concentrated. Central urban demand, tourism, redevelopment, resort popularity, and international recognition can all change how a market behaves.
Sellers in strong-demand areas may find this encouraging, but pricing still comes down to the actual property. Building age, condition, access, management quality, local competition, and buyer financing conditions all matter.
Japan’s 2026 roadside land values are useful background, but the real question is always more specific: what is happening in this area, with this building, at this price? And for help finding the right area for you, the Dovetail team would be happy to assist.
Source: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUD233ZU0T20C26A6000000/